Lord Mayor of Dublin

The office of Mayor of Dublin was created in June 1229 by Henry III. The office of Mayor was elevated to Lord Mayor in 1665 by Charles II, and as part of this process received the honorific The Right Honourable (The Rt Hon.). Lords Mayor were ex-officio members of the Privy Council of Ireland, which also entitled them to be addressed The Right Honourable. Though the Privy Council was de facto abolished in 1922, the Lord Mayor continued to be entitled to be addressed as The Right Honourable as a result of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, which granted the title in law. The Local Government Act 2001 finally removed the title as a consequence of the repeal of the 1840 act.

Mansion House, Dublin
The official residence of the Lord Mayor.

The Mansion House with the Lord Mayor's official car, a Volvo S90 T8 hybrid. Note the 191-D-1 licence plate, indicating that it was the first car registered in County Dublin in 2019.

The office is largely symbolic and its responsibilities consist of chairing meetings of the city council and representing the city at public events. Apart from a few reserved functions, which are exercised by the city council as a whole, executive power is exercised by the chief executive, a council official appointed by the Public Appointments Service (formerly by the Local Appointments Commission). Except on a handful of occasions where the city government has been suspended for not striking a rate (a level of local tax), Dublin has had a mayor for nearly eight hundred years.

The Lord Mayor resides in the eighteenth century Mansion House on Dawson Street.

A privilege enjoyed by the Lord Mayor is to receive the first car registration number in Dublin for each new year.[3] Since 2018, each new Lord Mayor is presented with an official bicycle by the Dublin Cycling Campaign. Nial Ring was the first recipient.[4]

The chain is the outward sign of the office of the Lord Mayor and is worn within the city when performing official civic functions, important ceremonial occasions and also as appropriate at other times, such as opening conferences, new businesses, etc.

It is also worn, at the Lord Mayor's discretion, when paying visits to such places as schools, churches and the emergency services.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin's gold chain of office was presented by King William III (William of Orange) to the City of Dublin in 1698. The chain is composed of decorative links including the Tudor rose, a harp, a trefoil shaped knot and the letter S (thought to stand for Seneschal or Steward). The previous chain was not returned by Michael Creagh, the Protestant Jacobite Lord Mayor in 1688–89.

• Richard Muton (1229–30), Dublin's first Mayor
• Gilbert de Lyvet (1233–34), (1235–37)[5][6][7]
• John Drake, three times Mayor between 1401 and 1412, who led the Dubliners to victory over the O'Byrne clan of County Wicklow at the Battle of Bloody Bank in 1402.
• Bartholomew Ball (1553–54), his widow Blessed Margaret Ball was martyred by their eldest son, Walter.
• Walter Ball (1580–81), Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes – implemented the Reformation in Dublin
• Francis Taylor (1595–96), martyred 29 January 1621
• Sir Daniel Bellingham (1665–1666), First Lord Mayor
• Jean Desmynieres (1666–67) and Lewis Desmynieres (1669–70), Huguenot Lord Mayors of Dublin
• Sir Mark Rainsford (1700–01), original founder of St James' Gate (Guinness) Brewery

• Lord Mayor of Belfast
• Lord Mayor of Cork
• Mayor of Kilkenny
• Cities in Ireland

• Lord Mayor Website
• Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–2015 (Dublin City Council)